City Veterans’ Charter pledges fairer deal for ex-servicemen

HULL Council is to seek a better deal for ex-servicemen and women by publishing a Veterans’ Charter.

The document, which is being drawn up by backbench councillors at the Labour-led authority, is expected to include an acknowledgement of veterans’ needs and a formal commitment to helping them access the specialist support and services they may need.

Practical delivery of its aims will be met by new funding for the creation of a veterans’ co-ordinator post at the council, contained in Labour’s emergency budget proposals announced yesterday.

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Subject to approval of the full council on June 16, £50,000 will be spent on the initiative until March 2012, rising to £150,000 in the next financial year.

Although the Government recently announced plans to enshrine the Military Covenant in law, guaranteeing its historic duty of care to the armed forces, Labour’s idea to do more at a local level pre-dates Ministers’ aspirations, having first been suggested in February.

Deputy council leader Daren Hale, who is also portfolio holder for finance, said: “It will be our commitment to certain rights for servicemen and women and say we agree to work together to help them find the support they need.

“Councillor (Mary) Glew at her surgeries, and I at mine, meet people who have left the forces early, through injury or illness, and they are scratching around for support.

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“There are a lot of good services out there and we want to appoint someone who can co-ordinate those services and bring them together in terms of housing support, benefits support, jobs support, emotional and health needs, particularly with trauma.

“It’s about making sure they get the right advice when they need it and we want to make sure it’s deliverable.”

The budget is Labour’s first opportunity to impose its spending priorities on the council since taking office from the Liberal Democrats in a resounding victory at the local elections last month.

It comes nearly four months into a budget set by the Liberal Democrats, which aimed to deliver £65m of savings because of Government funding cuts and axe up to 1,400 jobs.

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Labour, which had vigorously opposed the redundancy programme in opposition, now believes it can save £8.7m in redundancy settlements by maintaining about 250 posts.

The proposals would reverse more than £1.6m of Liberal Democrat cuts, maintaining spending on areas including day centres, museums, and the two council golf courses.

New spending plans include £500,000 on free and reduced price school meals – rising to £1.5m next year – £900,000 on prevention services for children, and £300,000 to develop more fostering placements.

The proposals also include a “review” of senior management costs, and Coun Hale said he could not rule out job losses among management posts.

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He added: “I believe this budget represents the best options open to us after the slash and burn priorities of the previous Liberal Democrat Cabinet. Far too much money has been spent on redundancies unnecessarily. Many who went did not really want to and the services they delivered are still needed.

“We believe this will save in the region of 250 frontline jobs, perhaps more when the detail is ironed out.”

Labour’s proposals, do however, contain a £7.7m deficit in next year’s budget – although Coun Hale said he was confident further savings could be made to meet the bulk of this. He said: “That’s out of an overall budget of £450m, which is less than £2m of savings for every £100m spent. It’s eminently do-able.”

Liberal Democrat leader Abigail Bell said: “The test of their budget will be to see whether or not they can keep their rash promises without wrecking the council’s budget and causing even worse cuts in a year’s time.”